Issue#: 4 Volume#: 30
Combat Voice of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU)
WELCOME TO CONGRESS 2009
August, 2009
15th, 17th & 18th August, 2009 “Advancing Social Development through Greater Workers’ Democracy”
A LOOK AT PAST CONGRESSES
GAWU’s 18th Delegates’ Congress - 2006
GAWU’s 14th Delegates’ Congress - 1994
GAWU’s 16th Delegates’ Congress - 2000
GAWU’s 17th Delegates’ Congress - 2003
GAWU’s 14th Delegates’ Congress - 1994
GAWU’s 15th Delegates’ Congress - 1997
INSIDE: GAWU’s Emancipation Day Message, Congress Quiz, Messages to Congress and more COMBAT: August, 2009
Page One
GAWU’s EMANCIPATION 2009 MESSAGE
AFTER EMANCIATION, WHAT? The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) salutes the country’s significant Afro-Guyanese community on the occasion of the 171st Anniversary of Emancipation. (We count from the 1st August 1838 when FULL FREEDOM from slavery was won).
It is not that the insidious system of the Middle Passage, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to British Colonies is not as important as it was brutal and savage. It is not that the transplanting of more than TWELVE MILLION African from West and Central Africa to the Caribbean and Guyana was not an example of man’s greatest inhumanity to man. And certainly, it is NOT that the dehumanized treatment of hundreds of thousands of slaves on Guyana’s plantations, their struggles and rebellions which culminated in the abolition of the trade and, eventually complete Emancipation, are not worth of examination here. GAWU, however, whilst paying tribute to the triumph that Emancipation brought to the freed people, wishes to focus, most briefly on two significant aspects of the CONSEQUENCES of Emancipation in 1838.
First, we repeat our agreement with the observation now often made: HAD THERE BEEN NO EMANCIPATION THERE (PROBABLY) WOULD HAVE BEEN NO ARRIVAL! The British, faced by their own internal social/economic circumstances, were forced to end both the trade and the system. But they needed to maintain their sugar industry which fed them their European wealth. So they turned to Portugal, to China, to the Caribbean and to INDIA for alternative cheap labour.
To a great extent, they succeeded. As GAWU notes its own involvement in Guyana’s still vital sugar sector, it recognizing the historical role sugar played in being the dubious catalyst which resulted in the makeup of Guyana’s population today. That, surely, is a significant consequence of Emancipation.
Then there is the sterling-example of socio-economic organisation and development demonstrated and implemented by the emancipated men and women in the face of aggressive sabotage and de-stabilisation by the bitter, greedy plantocracy. Slave savings from the (1834-1838) Apprenticeship period bought parts of plantation and other real estate and were developed into coastal village system. Ex-slaves turned to their own agriculture; to limited commerce; to the trades and, later to the professions. The history since then dictates that the contribution to today’s Guyana by African descended Guyanese can never be denied.
GAWU advances the view, over this week-end especially, that today’s Afro-Guyanese must use the historical PRIDE of their fore-fathers’ resilience, achievements and contributions to nation-building, to do some INTROSPECTION. GAWU respectfully suggests that that might include issues and questions about their community and political LEADERS and, perhaps most of all, WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PROMOTE A UNIFIED NATION where all groups work for the common good. Emancipation 1838, after all, had and has – implications for ALL of us.
Congress
QUIZ
1. What was GAWU’s first official name prior to being the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU)? 2. How were the first Congresses described?
3. How often does the GAWU General Council meet?
4. Who was the Union’s President when GAWU was first recognized in the Sugar Industry in 1976? 5. In what year did Dr Cheddi Jagan cease being Honorary President of GAWU?
6. How many triennial Congresses have so far been held, before this one? 7. In what year was GAWU’s name changed to what it is now?
8. What is the difference between a motion and a resolution?
9. What was the Congress 2009 Guest Speaker born? 10. What’s really different about the Opening of this Congress 2009?
Answers in the next edition of COMBAT
Why a Congress?
Whenever six hundred (600) members of any organization meet for 2½ days to deliberate, exchange views, refine policies after clarifying issues and then make important long-lasting decisions, that occasion COMBAT: August, 2009
has to be extremely significant and useful. When the gathering is planned, structured and an event such as the 19th Delegates Congress of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), then the activity borders on national significance. “National” because GAWU is Guyana’s and the Region’s largest workers Bargaining Agent. “National” because GAWU represents thousands of workers in strategic sectors of Guyana’s economy – in agriculture, forestry, fishery,
distillery and some clerical interests. But why a Congress every three years? GAWU members from all branches now know that Congress represents the highest forum of governance of the union, in keeping with the Constitution of the Union. Not to convene a Congress would be a breach of the Constitution and send a message that all is not well with the management, accountability and transparency of the unit of which they are thousands of financial members. So, in one fundamental sense, the convening of the Triennial Congress is proof that GAWU is a well-organised, accountable and democratic institution, which respects and adheres to its members’ constitutional rules and regulations. As is usually observed, the Congress is “the highest decision-making forum” of the union, in between all the other levels of representation – from workplace sessions through shop steward or branch meetings to General Council deliberations. Through Motions and Resolutions, all the union’s members, through their
representative delegates to Congress will have their contributions to the union’s development and well being considered and known. Through their Branches and groups, delegates are nominated to represent members’ interests and concerns. Of course, Congress is also convened to review the work and progress made since it last met – in this case at Bath, West Coast Berbice, three years ago. Both Executive and grassroot membership grasp the opportunity to assess how well they coped with the execution of the decisions taken, as well as how they, as union members and the nation’s employees fared during the three year period under review. Also, it is at Congress that the membership chooses those that would represent them on the 50 member General Council. Those reasons – and others – make Congress compulsory. It is a symbol of vibrant, responsible trade union in democratic action. Combat wishes the 19th Delegates’ Congress, every success! Page Two
NOTES ON The AFL-CIO and “nationalisation” PORT MOURANT
INTERNATIONAL | INTERNATIONAL | INTERNATIONAL | INTERNATIONAL | INTERNATIONAL | INTERNATIONAL
The AFL-CIO Executive Council, at its annual winter meeting in Miami Beach, Florida, adopted a resolution Thursday urging the Obama administration to temporarily nationalize failing banks. What is the significance of this policy statement? Does it represent a radical reorientation by the AFL-CIO, which, after all, has been throughout its history an implacable foe of socialism and defender of the profit system? It is nothing of the sort. There is not a trace of economic radicalism, or even independent thinking, in the statement of the labor bureaucrats. Rather, the AFL-CIO has merely joined a growing list of economists and political figures from across the spectrum of American establishment politics advocating a temporary government takeover of banking giants such as Citigroup and Bank of America as a more effective means of utilizing taxpayer funds to bail out the financial aristocracy and restabilize US capitalism. The union officials, like many others in the establishment, argue that a short-term government takeover is the best means of offloading the bad debts of the banks onto the public in order to return the banks to profitability and avert a full-scale collapse of the private banking system. The AFL-CIO resolution is a model of political evasion and outright dishonesty. It notes that the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall act has resulted in a “dramatic concentration of banking power,” with 43 percent of US bank assets held by just four institutions—Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The resolution does not mention that the repeal was endorsed by the Clinton administration, with whom the AFL-CIO was allied at the time. Nor does the resolution demand the breakup of these corrupt institutions, or even the reestablishment of the sort of regulatory controls that were set in place by the Roosevelt administration. Declaring its loyalty to the “free market rules that workers live by,” the AFL-CIO’s resolution criticizes the current policy of the Obama administration in conventional economic terms. It warns against the administration’s policy of “feeding the banks public money in fits and starts” as leading to “zombie banks” and “long-term stagnation.” The resolution’s most significant passage asserts: “The most important goal of government support must be to get banks lending again by ensuring they are properly capitalized... In the case of distressed banks, this means the government will end up with a controlling share of common stock. The government should use that stake to force a cleanup of the banks’ balance sheets. The result should be banks that can either be turned over to the bondholders in exchange for bondholder concessions or sold back into the public markets.” There is absolutely nothing here that distinguishes the AFL-CIO from liberal bourgeois economists such as Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz or right-wing Republicans like former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Senator Lindsey Graham and James Baker, chief of staff and treasury secretary under Ronald Reagan and secretary of state under the senior George Bush, who have raised temporary nationalization of failing banks as an emergency measure required to prop up the banking system. The trade union bureaucracy intervenes not as an advocate of the working class, but rather as a supporter of one faction in the growing internal debate within the ruling class. Its class role and orientation COMBAT: August, 2009
were underscored at the Executive Council meeting by its focus on the affairs and needs of the miniscule segment of the American people who derive their fortunes from Wall Street. It passed two resolutions on the banking crisis, but had nothing to propose about halting the tidal wave of home foreclosures, restoring the savings and retirement accounts of millions of families, blocking plant closures and layoffs, or providing serious relief for working people devastated by the impact of the economic crisis. The complacent functionaries basking in the Florida sun offered no proposals for government public works projects or any other measures to address the growing social crisis. This comes as no surprise to millions of workers who have been abandoned and betrayed by the official unions and the servants of big business who control them. The absolute solidarity of the AFL-CIO with corporate America was highlighted by the AFL-CIO’s tribute to Paul Volcker. “We commend President Obama,” declared the resolution on financial regulation, “for convening the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, author of the G-30 report on global financial regulation, and we look forward to working with Chairman Volcker in this vital area.” Volcker, as Fed chairman under Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican President Ronald Reagan, was also the “author” of the deepest recession, prior to the present crisis, since the 1930s. Volcker launched the three-decade ruling class offensive against the working class by jacking up interest rates to nearly 20 percent in 1979 in order to create mass unemployment and precipitate a wave of plant closures. He played a central role in dismantling large sections of basic industry and diverting social resources into financial speculation, creating conditions for a vast enrichment of the ruling elite and an unprecedented growth of social inequality. Volcker famously declared that the single greatest contribution of Reagan to quelling inflation in the US was his role in breaking the 1981 strike of the PATCO air traffic controllers. The very fact that the issue of nationalization has arisen testifies to the failure of the capitalist market system, which is unalterably defended by the union bureaucracy. All of the various schemes proposed to bail out the banks, including temporary nationalization, seek to make the working class pay for the breakdown of the profit system. The question is: In whose interests is government control to be exercised, under whose control, and for what purpose? The crisis requires not a temporary government takeover to bail out the bankers, but a socialist policy directed against the economic stranglehold of the financial aristocracy. What is required is the nationalization of the banks without compensation to the big shareholders and bondholders, the transformation of the banks and financial institutions into public utilities under the democratic control of the working class, and the redirection of financial policy to meet the needs of the people for good-paying jobs, housing, education, health care and a secure retirement, rather than the drive for profit and the accumulation of personal wealth by a privileged few BY: Barry Grey
Port Mourant is a significant place in the history of our country. It is the birthplace of the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan, father of the Guyanese Nation. His parents were brought from India as indentured labourers to work on that Plantation. It is also the birth place of a number of our great national and international cricketers eg Rohan Kanhai, Joe Solomon, Alvin Kallicharran, Romain Etwaroo, Tyrone Etwaroo, Reginald Etwaroo. Port Mourant itself has a long and checkered history of sugar cultivation and manufacture. It got its name from its original owner, Englishman Stephen Mourant who owned Plantation Port Mourant from 1820.
The ownership changed over the years and in 1852 John Kingston acquired the Plantation. It remained within the Kingston family and it descendants for nearly a century. In the 1870’s Port Mourant was described as “a fine block of lands.” At that time it comprised of 1,245 acres of cane lands and a further 2,284 acres of uncultivated lands at Tain, Clifton and Johns. (These were three (3) abandoned cotton estates which were subsequently acquired by Mr. Kingston and became part of an enlarged Port Mourant. In the late 19th Century Plantation Port Mourant had a vast area of excellent savannah lands stretching for miles between the estate’s backdam and the Canjie River.
Mr. Kingston invested heavily in terms of establishing the necessary infrastructural works e.g. roads, dams, bridges, sea defenses, drainage and irrigational canals, etc.
In 1880 sugar output was approximately 100 hogsheads of sugar weekly and the quality of crystals was described as “second to none” Port Mourant was described as “the finest cane lands to be found in Guyana.” In 1880 the owners of Port Mourant Estate received a Crown Land License to cut a waterpath to the Canjie River. This was testimony to the recognition that there was great potential of the unempoldered back lands in the area. The canal boosted sugar production. In the late 19th Century Port Mourant was regarded as “one of the most salubrious places in which to reside” It was seen by the English as “a local Barbados to resort for a whiff of the pure Atlantic.”
Sugar output increased significantly as more lands cane under cultivation at the turn of the century. Average production in the 1880’s – 2,080 tons per crop. In the 20th Century Albion-Port Mourant merged. By the end of the century Albion-Port Mourant sugar estate emerged as the largest sugar producing estate in the country and is still so today.
Port Mourant is also associated with education and training of our nation’s professionals and tradesmen. The Guysuco’s Port Mourant Training Centre was established in 1957. It is recognised according to Guysuco, as the best training centre scheme in Guyana and the Caribbean. In 2000 the Berbice Campus of the University of Guyana was established at Tain part of Port Mourant Estate. Page Three
MESSAGES TO CONGRESS From the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades & Labour Union - St. Kitts On behalf of the Executive Committee and Membership of the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades & Labour Union, allow me to extend Fraternal Greetings and Congratulations on GAWU’s 19th Delegates Congress, and another milestone in the life of your organization. We have noted with interest the theme for the Congress:- “Advancing Social Development through Greater Workers’ Democracy”, is most appropriate and quite timely, in view of the present enormous economic challenges faced by the Global Workers’ Movement. We are aware of the severe financial problems being faced by Unions to confront, challenge and find ways to address issues of a Global nature, especially, in the face of the greatest Global Economic Recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. We are also sure that the Delegates to this the 19th Delegates Congress will strategize to adequately address these challenges. We would appreciate receiving information on your Delegates’ deliberations and decisions. It is my distinct pleasure on behalf of the St. KittsNevis Trades & Labour Union to extend best wishes to the Delegates and Membership of GAWU on the occasion of your 19th Delegates Congress. Long live the Guyana Agriculture And General Workers’ Union. Yours in Solidarity, Batumba Tak General Secretary
From Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) - Germany You gave us the opportunity to send you the warmest greetings of the German workers in the food and beverage industry as well as in the hotel- and restaurant branch for the 19th Congress of your union. The major challenges which you describe are similar around the globe. The challenges facing trade unions are the same in the developing countries as well as in the developed countries. We must work together to reject neo-liberal policies that destroy the fundament of life on earth. We agree that the social development depends from participation and securing the rights of trade unions, long-term success can´t be based without this democratic development. Therefore, there is a common interest of trade unions all over the world to beat the neo-liberal policies. From our point of view, this is one of the major themes of unions at this time. We wish your conference every success and a lot of efforts to your organization’s success in developing the trade union movement in Guyana. Yours in solidarity Franz-Josef Möllenberg Chaiman
From the IUF Caribbean Regional Office - Barbados The Caribbean Regional Office of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) is pleased to pen a message on the occasion of the 19th Delegates’ Congress of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), while taking note of
the Conference theme “Advancing Social Development through Greater Workers’ Democracy”. The GAWU has the enviable reputation of being consistently in the forefront of Regional Trade Unions which stand up for the preservation of workers’ rights, especially recognised in the current atmosphere where progressive forces are insisting on the platform of Decent Work and the need to recognise and uphold the tenets of ILO Conventions 89 and 98. The serious issues facing the Sugar and Bananas Industries of the Caribbean Region have to be tackled and GAWU continues to be a leading light in the defence of the workers rights and the national rights in the struggle to have the EU take on a more humane face in dealing with issues which have serious and severe import for Caribbean Economies. While recognising that “sugar is no longer king”, we recognise that it continues to be a significant contributor to employment and foreign exchange earnings for some countries, including Guyana. We congratulate GAWU on its successful defence of Trade Union Rights and look forward to the result of your Conference. Long live the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU). Fraternally, E. LeVere Richards IUF Caribbean Regional Secretary
From the Waterfront & Allied Workers Union - Domnica The Executive staff and membership of the Waterfront & Allied Workers Union extends fraternal greetings and profound best wishes to your Union on the occassion of your 19th Delegates’ Congress. We noted with interest the theme you have selected from your upcoming congress and we beleive that much thought went into the selection of it. In the theme there are many challenges to be addressed and we are confident that the leadership and the delagates will do just that since we are sure that you have already identified the challenges with which your Union will be confronted. in advancing social democracy the GAWU will have to improve and increase such negotiated benefits as vacation leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, education leave, certified and uncertified sick leave, health & safety, gratuity, housing and uniforms to name a few. We are aware of the environment in which your Congress will be taking place and such will test your resolve to continue to deliver to your constitutent membership. it will be taking place when the full impact of the international crisis will be felt in Guyana. This will have some consequences for the job security of your membership; a fundamental function of any Trade Union organisation. Again since the core of your membership is in the Sugar Industry, the trading relationship between Guyana and Europe will of necessity take centre stage since the loss of market share could mean job loss for your membership. Again it bring to the fore the fundamental function of your Union vis-a-vis your constituents. All of the foregoing we are sure will be addressed at your upcoming Congress. We wish your 19th Congrss every success and hope that tolerance for divergent viewpoints will be the hall mark of your deliberations. Fraternally Kertist Augustus General Secretary
GAWU RAFFLE RESULTS The Union recently held the drawing of the National Congress Raffle at its headquarters, 59 High Street and Wight’s Lane, Kingston and is pleased to advise supporters of the winning tickets: Ticket# 1st Prize – One Jailing Scooter 19983 2nd Prize – One 9.5 cu ft Refrigerator 7193 3rd Prize – Return Trip for two to Kaieteur 10994 4th Prize – One home theater system 5863 5th Prize – 20” Sharp Television 18971 6th Prize – One microwave over 1654 7th Prize – One mountain bicycle 18143 8th Prize – One cellular phone 8217 9th Prize – One blender 8220 10th Prize – One electronic iron 20028 Consolation Prizes: 1. 11816 3. 13319 5. 1359 7. 8508 9. 10217 11. 015 13. 21122 15. 14210 17. 21720 19. 12580
2. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16. 18. 20.
13913 1269 1356 7910 15363 13281 17286 10936 19053 16701
MEET OUR GUEST SPEAKER
Dr Freek Schiphorst
Dr. Freek Schiphorst is a Dutch national and specialist in the area of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment. He is Senior Lecturer and current Chairman of the Board of Examiners at the prestigious Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Holland. He has taught there for over 20 years and has teaching thousands of students from all regions of the world in labour and development. His areas of interest include, Organising the Working Poor in the Informal Economy by trade unions, Industrial Anthropology & Labour Organisation, Global Production Systems, Trade Unions and Labour Rights (incl. including the role of the ILO, Corporate Social Responsibility; etc), Participative Management, Employee Involvement and Labour Response and the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe. Dr Schiphost obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Antropology from the University of Amsterdam in 1977, a Doctorandus in Social Anthropology from the Univeristy of Amsterdam in 1982 and a Doctor in Social Sciences from Leiden University in 2001. Dr. Schiphorst currently teaches in the areas of labour and human resource management, qualitative methodology. Dr. Schiphorst has travelled extensively to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe and presented numerous academic papers to International Industrial Relations fora and trade union confederations. He is highly respected as a leading scholar, policy maker and advisor on labour and trade unionism as a well as a friend of the labour movement.
COMBAT is a publication of the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU) 59 High Street & Wight’s Lane, Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana, S.A. Tel: 592-227-2091/2; 225-5321 Fax: 592-227-2093 Email: gawu@bbgy.com Website: www.gawu.net